Nokia on Thursday unveiled a bicycle-powered phone charger. The Nokia Bicycle Charger Kit, which can be attached to any bicycle, powers up from the pedaling motion of the bike's rider. A dynamo (the electricity generator) is powered by the front bicycle wheel as a rider pedals and transfers electricity to a charger attached to the handlebar, which a phone plugs into.
"To begin charging, a cyclist needs to travel around six kilometers per hour (four miles per hour), and while charging times will vary depending on battery model, a 10 minute journey at 10 kilometers per hour (six miles per hour) produces around 28 minutes of talk time or 37 hours of standby time. The faster you ride, the more battery life you generate," Nokia said in a statement.
The charger can be used to power any Nokia phone with a 2mm power jack, ac
cording to Nokia.
The kit comes with two small brackets, in addition to the charger and generator. One bracket attaches to the bicycle's handlebars to secure the charger and a cell phone holder. The other secures the small electric generator to the bike's fork.
The world's largest maker of cell phones said in a statement that its new product will provide "free and environmentally friendly electricity for mobile phones," and likely be welcomed in areas of the world where bicycles are a transportation staple.
Priced at 15 euros (about $18), the charging kit will be available from Nokia online and Nokia phone retailers by the end of the year, according to Nokia.
While its certainly newsworthy that Nokia is offering a bicycle charger, it follows many others. In 2007, Motorola demonstrated a bike-powered charger at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). In September 2009 Dahon unveiled the $99 Biologic FreeCharge for charging small electronic gadgets at the Eurobike Fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany which connected to any existing dynamo hub on a bike.
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